Heart of Emptiness
by Shenlong7
Summary: The final curtains have yet to close and now deeper revelations will be revealed as Sora finds himself emersed further into the darkness. Will she help him come out unscathed or will it all be for nothing M for mature themes
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Alone

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

* * *

He stood over the cliff looking down into the dark crevice that was just below him, all inviting and waiting for him to just jump into it. It wanted to take him into its embrace and crush him in its rocky arms, spreading his blood all over and basking in it, giving him a deep embrace in return, the deepest embrace he would ever feel. It was all waiting for him and he was just standing there staring at it as he looked down into the crevice that had a love for those who gave it their life, it was the one thing that made the crevice warm so any person who gave it their warmth was the equivalent of mother. There was an unknown time period that passed between his viewing of the crevice to the time when someone placed their hand on his shoulder, bringing him out of his thoughts. He turned to the smiling white haired youth that had placed his hand on his shoulder to check on him, he could see how his face looked in the reflection of his eyes, he didn't like it either.

"Hey Sora, are you okay," asked Riku as he looked at his friend with great concern for the boy, but Sora couldn't find words to describe the strangeness and mystery that lay within his thoughts. "You've been acting strange ever since you got back from that place, but you don't seem to want to tell any of us what you've been thinking about. Kairi is especially concerned with how you think and I don't get why you wouldn't tell her."

"There are just some things that you can't explain," replied Sora as he looked back at the crevice and noticed the darkness that seemed to be moving along it. "Every time I destroy one of them another appears, and every time I do that I can't help but think or wonder about where it all goes."

"The King told me about your fight with that one man, the one in black, Seven," said Riku as he tried to get Sora to face him, but the spikey-headed youth wouldn't look at him. "What did he tell you when you fought him?"

"Nothing, it's just been nagging me on how he could be so powerful and yet he has a keyblade just like me," lied Sora and Riku knew it was a lie, he had known his friend long enough to tell that, but he felt it was best to let him be. Sora was still thinking about the fight between him and the enigma known a Seven back at the Coliseum"

_**FLASH BACK BEGINS**_

_Sora__ watched as Hercules tried to fight off the menacing figure that stalked towards him, but the mighty hero had spent too much time fighting monsters with no rest that over time he was too tired to stop him. Without a single show of effort, the mysterious figure in a black hooded __cloak_ _brought Hercules to his knees and then knocked him out of his way as he strode towards the crowd of on lookers. At first __Sora__ thought it was a member of Organization XIII, but it couldn't be because he had defeated every last member, or at least he believed he had done that. This one wielded a __keyblade__, which was unheard of for __a member of Organization XIII save__ for __Roxas__, but he could see the __keyblade__ in the figures hand. It was the very same __keyblade__ that __Ansem__ had wielded during his fight with __Sora__, the __keyblade__ of darkness. _

_"I don't know who you are, or if you are with the Organization XIII, but I will not allow you to get away with whatever your planning," said __Sora__ as he jumped to his feet with his __keyblade__ ready and Donald and Goofy both at the ready right alongside of him, but the figure was not intimidated by this in the least bit. _

_"Well I'm not part of the Organization, but I do admire their fashion sense," said __the figure as he took a step on an empty seat and pointed his __keyblade__ at __Sora's__ friends and started mumbling something. "Now then, I don't want them interfering any time soon." _

_Donald and Goofy both seemed to freeze right in their stances and they started turning a shade of grey that was something like stone before they were turned into stone completely. __Sora__ looked in shock at his friends and then back at the laughing figure as he reeled his __keyblade__ back then hacked at __Sora__ with a mighty swing. __Sora__ was able to defend __himself__ but the random and powerful attacks of the figure were a bit more than he was used to. He might have lost to him had it not been for the sudden help of another friend of his, __Auron__, leaping in to cut at the attacker.__ The attacker backed up and smirked at __Auron__ before he cast his fire spell sending flames spinning around him, forcing __Auron__ to jump back and then he swung his __keyblade__ with an intent to kill, but all he came up with was air as __Sora__ pulled __Auron__ before he could get hit by the attack and then __Sora__ jumped in for an attack. The attacker was able to defend himself quite well, even counterattacking a few times, but as __Auron__ and __Hercule__ both got into the fight, the attacker didn't seem to be holding up so well as he was almost hit by attacks multiple times. _

_"Well I suppose this is as good a time as any to use it," said the attacker as he pushed a large destructive orb into the ground__causing the three heroes to be knocked back, Hercules hitting a wall and __Sora__ being pushed back into the stadium seats, while __Auron__ managed to keep his footing. "Good, one left standing, even if it is a tired old man." _

_"Well then why don't you come and see how tired this old man really is," said __Auron__ as he put his sword over his shoulder and waited for the attacker to make the first move. _

_The attacker lunged at __Auron__, pausing mid-lunge to feint on one side and then whirled around with his __keyblade__ aimed high, but __Auron__ still managed to block it before being forced back into another __wall and he successfully parried each attack before pushing the attacker back. With a wild howl, the attacker stabbed at __Auron__ continuously and then backed up to call on a blizzard spell. __Auron__ cut the spell in half but was surprised to find the attacker waiting for him and he felt the hard boot in his stomach as he was kicked into one of the statues and his own blade thrown in his direction to catch his collar before he fell off. _

_"I think it's time for you to nap now, __grampa__, but I'll play with you later," said the attacker as he finally removed his hood, revealing black hair that was very similar to __Riku's__ own hair and his face looked a lot like __Riku's__. "Well I think I should be going now, before the cavalry arrives, but in the mean time __Sora__, get stronger by killing many heartless. Nobodies carry __no__ darkness and the only thing that makes you stronger is that darkness that you take from them. I'll be waiting for when you are truly ready to fight me, but remember, think dark thoughts." _

_"How are you so strong and what do you mean," asked __Sora__ as he struggled to get up, but he felt a foot on his back and he looked up to see the grinning enigma, whom he now assumed was a nobody. _

_"I'm strong because I have killed many heartless and was born of darkness, therefore I get more stron__ger by __absorbing darkness than you do," replied the nobody as he sat down on one of the ruined seats._

_"Absorb darkness?" _

_"You don't know? You're __keyblade__ is a natural conductor of darkness and light, it even absorbs darkness for the wielder to make them stronger! You didn't realize that." _

_"Who are you," asked __Sora__ as he looked at __the nobody__ and before the nobody left he replied, "__Zeven__."_

_**FLASH BACK ENDS**_

"If you only knew what I'm really afraid of, Riku," whispered Sora as clenched his fist and held his hand in front of his face. "This darkness inside of me, it keeps on getting worse with every heartless I destroy and I've been a heartless once so I've already had a close brush with the darkness, but now with every heartless that I kill I get closer to the darkness inside. I don't know if I'm strong enough to come back from the darkness once it has a hold of me."

"I didn't have the strength either," replied Riku as he turned away from Sora and looked out at the setting sun as it went down over the horizon of the mountain. "It was you that saved me from the darkness, when I couldn't think of anything you were able to beat it out of me, Sora. I'm sure that if you ever turned to darkness, that Kairi would beat it out of you as well."

"What if I hurt her though?"

"Sora, the more you worry the more pain you cause us and the more you refuse to spare yourself of it, the more pain it will cause us as well."

"The Hedgehog's Delimma," said a voice from behind them. The two teenagers turned to see Cloud staring at both of them while leaning against his buster sword. "The hedgehog is cursed to have needles on its back that prevent it from getting close to the one it loves so must get far, while on the other hand, the hedgehog needs love to feel good and thus you have another pain from the inside. The closer you are to someone the more pain you cause each other, but the farther you are from that person the more pain you cause yourself."

"You would know all about that pain," said Sora as he brushed his hand along one of the spikes in his hair and they found that Cloud was nodding as he stood up straight, pulled his sword from out of the ground and started walking off.

* * *

Zeven watched the two observe the other one leave and he then turned his focus onto the keyblade master that he wanted to kill. Not just wanted, craved to kill the boy, he needed it to escape his own fate or else the one he was trying to avoid would catch up with him. Fate wasn't very kind to anybody and that especially included Zeven, but he could live with how cruel life was, he wasn't sure that Sora could do the same. He let out a sigh of despair at the fact that he had to stoop so low just so he could escape the fate of having to fight the knight who was destined to kill him or so that's what the old woman had told him. The world around him was quiet without the single sound of anyone living near, but he could sense that there was something near him or at least in the vicinity of himself. He stood up and was immediately surrounded by heartless, causing him to smirk a bit before he called up his own keyblade and destroyed the heartless.

"I see, so you've found me on this world to and your still using that puppet of yours," said Zeven as he looked up at the sky in the direction that he felt his nemesis moving from. "Go on ahead and try to find me, I'll be miles away from here and that boy will be dead soon, I will see to that. I have to see to that because we both know that I could never kill you brother, both by skill and by the fact that I cannot bring myself to kill my little brother, but you could kill me little brother. You'd kill everyone, wouldn't you, Xenahort?"


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Struggle Within

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or the characters of kingdom hearts.

* * *

Zeven watched them for a bit and then walked away from the sight, determined to get away from that world as fast as he could before the one he was running away from caught up with him. He didn't know how far he had walked into the darkness, but he did know that it was dangerously close to swallowing him up, especially with his luck. His black boots made a crunch whenever they crushed the dirt beneath his boot and he found that he was stepping, not on stones, but on the bones of some unknown creature. Despite his heightened sense of danger and better judgment, he crouched down to observe the bones, only to be pushed up into the air by a ground creature. It had a dark blue scaly body with many talons coming from its fingers and it had a red heart mark on its forehead; there were apparently more heartless out there than he had thought. He brought his back as he summoned his keyblade into his head and shoot a fireball out of his hand while freezing the ground at its feet.

"He can make new ones, but he can never make any that have a sense of intelligence," noted Zeven as he brought his blade down and cut into his rocky opponent, the blade cracking the rock hard scales and slicing off the flesh. He wasn't so much as cutting it as he was taking it apart, piece by peaceful piece, something that he excelled at doing most of all. "I believe my time here is through, but your brothers and sisters can do me a favor and help Sora get stronger, though I doubt they will survive it."

* * *

Cloud was only a few feet in front of Sora as the boy followed one of his mentors who helped him gain new moves and move faster than he already did. Sora was grateful for the help because he connected with Cloud, even though Cloud was silent and always calm, while Sora was more like Yuffie, ready to jump into the fun without thinking. Now he had to think as he tried to take on the growing number of heartless that had appeared throughout the world, most likely at the behest of Maleficent, but Sora had deep dark feeling in his gut that maybe something else, something worse, was controlling those heartless. It wasn't the most pleasant thought in his mind at the time, but he knew that he couldn't rule out the possibility for things were usually more than they seemed to be, especially after the incident with the Organization. After that experience, Sora thought he was going to be able to live a nice and quiet life, but he was proven wrong when Donald and Goofy showed up at his doorstep one day with that look of "it's time to do your duty again" look.

"This cave seems to have been carved by something, possibly one of the native creatures," observed Leon as he ran his hand along the stone and turned back to see Sora staring at something. "Is something the matter, Sora?"

"What, oh no I'm fine just thinking about something," replied Sora as he turned his attention back to the picture on the wall, it was of a boy sitting on a crescent moon with something hanging from his feet.

"Who ever lived here was a good artist," said Riku as he patted the painting, momentarily bringing Sora out of his trance, which Riku did noticed from the way that the look in Sora's eyes changed. "You seem to be very into that art, I think you're more in love with it than I am."

"I don't know, it just seemed to call out to me when I looked at it," said Sora as he placed his own hand on the stone and watched how it lit up at his touch. "It's strange, I feel like I've been here before, like it's something from a past life."

"We should be careful, it could be a trap by Zeven to ambush us," said Cloud as he took a step forward and put his hand on his sword."Drink a bit of the wine from this place and you may wind up being poisoned, mess around with a girl here and you may end up infected."

"I'm too young to do any of that stuff," said Sora as he pushed on the stone wall and it parted to the side, leaving an opening for Sore and Sora walked into the opening wondering what to expect.

"_Come closer, sir knight, I have been waiting for you to come back by this way_," said a heavenly voice that belonged to a beautiful woman with long blond hair and in a gorgeous outfit that showed off her exquisite figure. _"I have been waiting for so long for you to come back here and pick up the armor that you left behind as well as get the quest that you once swore you would do when the time was needed. Now that time for you, sir knight, for Zeven has appeared again and soon his brother will continue to fight you till the ends of the world. You must stop both of them to make sure that universe is alf, just trust in me and I will give you everything you need fight him._

"Who are you, show yourself and tell me what you mean by calling me sir knight, my name is Sora," replied the boy, a bit panicked with the being that was talking to him. "I came here to look for Zeven, not join a war that I'm not a part of."

"_Oh but you apart of this story, sir knight, and you have been ever since you were born and ever since you were reborn from the ashes of your former self,"_ said the voice as the light flowed in from the cracks and he saw a female bathed in light with beautiful silver hair float above the ground before him. She held her hand out to show a silver ring with the crescent of Kingdom Hearts on it. "_I am the one who was sent to guard your armor from anyone who would try to take it, but I am afraid that it all vanished leaving only one piece of it, this ring that is in my hand. Please take it and hopefully you will remember you former self, the knight that you were before there was a King Mickey, before there were the wicked villains of today that you face now. The knight who protected Kingdom Hearts with his life, even if he had _

_to put his heart into it to guard the final princess of heart, the princess that you now live with and love with your heart now that there are no longer the barriers that were in your way before. _

_"You and your friend both fought and you and your friend both put your souls into a deep sleep until the time was right and you could finally help fulfill your promise to help take Princess Kairi to the gateway of Kingdom Hearts. The path has been hard for both of you and you have both had your own close encounters with the darkness, but both of you still have your light, though you think you are still in that darkness. You both must regain the powers that you both used if you are to take on your power to defeat the nemesis that you had sought to defeat a long time ago. I give you back your armor, Sir Sora and with it I give you, Sir Riku, your armor back as well." _

The woman held out her hand to reveal another ring that was darker than Sora's, but the Kingdom Heart's crest glowed brighter than Sora's because Riku would always return no matter how far he went in, that was the power of his heart. They both placed their rings on their fingers, not knowing what to think about it, but as soon as they had placed them on they felt a protective barrier form around them and they also felt a sudden power surge. Along with the power came the feeling in the two like they knew what the woman was talking about, but the ability to remember their supposed past life had yet to catch up with them, despite the best wishes of the woman. When they turned to thank the woman for all her help they found to their surprise, that she was not there and in her place and the place of the door was the picture again of the two of them, both in armor looking over the horizon at Kingdom Hearts.

"What just happened," asked Sora as he looked at Riku and Riku could only shrug as an explanation for the anomaly that had just occurred failed to register with him. All they knew was that they had gotten stronger and that there was more strength to come, all they had to do was remember.

* * *

The red haired man didn't know what he was doing when he finally woke up from his slumber and found that he was in a room, a very comfortable room with a night stand right next to the bed and a table not too far from the bed with chairs that was meant for an eating table. On the table was an assortment of different fruits, apples, grapes, oranges, and lemons, along with a glass that had a pitcher of wine next to it. The room had all the comforts of home, but it felt strange that he should wake up to so comfortable a place when he had been on the doorstep of oblivion what seemed like seconds before, but more time had probably passed than he had thought. He got up from his bed to find that he still had his black pants on as well as the long sleeve black undershirt that he wore under it, and he made his way to the table, turning to look at the man who he finally noticed had been standing there. The man was a very curios one have blue hair that was short and unruly, spiking out a bit, but still strait at the same time as it lay on his head like some type of movie pretty boy. (Think Grimjaw.) His manner of dress was a black coat over the clothes that would be found in a medieval time that was beset by lords, but all of his clothing was black.

"Welcome back to the realm of existence, Axel," said the man as he poured Axel a glass of wine and handed it to the red haired nobody. "As to your question of what you are doing here, I put you back together using the memories that was kept in your nobody and then mixed it with the hear t that was taken from your heartless. You are exactly as you were, except this time you are whole, as are the other organization members that I brought back. TO your question of who I brought back, I brought back everyone except your leader."

"You still haven't answered my last question," said Axel as he leaned back in his chair. "For what purpose?"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Following the Trail

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

* * *

The interior of the cave was wider than the opening cracks that they had slipped through with the slight fear that they may get stuck, but the cracks were wet enough for them to slip through. Sora felt himself in awe at the sight that he observed with the many towers of stalagmites hanging from the ceiling glowing green emerald color as their torches lit the way and he began to see in the distance that it went deeper than he imagined. Just from the introduction that he had already had he knew that it was not going to be the average cave that he use to climb through as a kid when everything was so new to him and the world was rich with endless possibilities that seemed secure. Now he was older and wiser and the mystique of each new possibility had its own grim outcome and the security had faltered in the light of the realism that revealed what was in the darkness. It was terrible to have to learn that at such a young age, but Sora was able to mature enough for that, even if he wasn't as mature as he felt he should be. Around him were men who were all mature to the horrors of the world and the darkness that it all held and he seemed like a child to them all, but that fact was an unknown strength to him that he had not realized. There was power in his heart and he could not figure out why he looked at every black shadow with that same old feeling that he had when he was a kid after everything that he had been through.

"Well it is big enough, but look at the location," cracked Sora as he looked at the cave, only gaining the semblance of a smile from Cloud and leon, but he could always count on at least a soft chuckle from Riku. "Do you really think we will find something out what is happening to us by going into here, Cloud?"

"This place seems to have a bit of history with the both of you so it could be that your memories are in here," replied Cloud as he silently strode over to one of the doors and tried to push it open. The white stone door would not budge at the push of Cloud's hand so he used his sword to cut it down the middle slit, causing the door to open at the release of the locking system. Nothing was going to keep Cloud Strife out of going somewhere, not even a door. "Maybe this way will have something of your past."

"It's worth a shot," said Sora as he walked on and saw that down the hallway was another door, a door that lead to somewhere familiar, something about the marking on the door that seemed to be from somewhere. The memory he was looking for was one that seemed as vague as a dream and as empty as hope, but he could recognize where he was, or at least see where this place was. "This place, I think I know it, I think this is Castle Oblivion or at least it's similar to the castle only a few things are strikingly different."

"You mean besides the fact that we're in a cave," said Riku slyly with a smirk that Sora ignored as he looked at the door that he was quite certain, was the door to the Halloween Town of Castle Oblivion. "But from what I understand Castle Oblivion itself was not meant to exist, it was just some entity made up by the memories of the different worlds you and I visited. Even the castle itself was a memory of Disney Castle that was then built upon."

"Well that is very well true," said a voice from the distance, a voice that crept up from the dark memories and fears of Sora that had often plagued him and Riku, most especially Riku since he had been possessed by that voice. "But then again Disney Castle itself is built upon a memory, as one could say of any architectural construction that is modeled after a pre-existing one, whether it exists or not depends upon how one may view the evidence."

"Xemnas," snarled Sora as he drew his keyblade and found that the person he was looking at bore a resemblance, but was more whole than the being they fought in the World That Never Was. "Or are you Xenahort? Either way I want to know how you got here!"

"It's simple really, I was called here because I have another part to play in this story, though it seems it will only be a supporting role," replied Xehanort calmly as he sat down at a desk that was there. "In reality I was only trying to match with my own brother who was trying to complete his own conquest of darkness so that he is not killed by the one we fear or killed by you two. He and I are both beings of Twilight or started out as Twilight, but that put us into conflict with beings of Light like you two and beings of darkness like the one we are trying to escape. In the end we both tried hard, I as a scientist tried to learn all I could about the darkness while my brother tried his best to gain power which led him to many places. I seemed to have taken the quicker method for my power and was overall consumed by it, but then again I was the scientist of both of us and I could not comprehend why someone whom we barely knew would want to do the illogical thing of coming to kill us. I turned to the one thing that made sense to me, I turned to science and tried to find some reason as to why things would become the way they are, but through my experiments I did not entertain the possibility that I would be consumed by my own research, nor did I believe that my teacher would make the mistake of using an object of darkness to open my heart.

"That one incident increased my own darkness and in the end I could feel my heart slipping slowly into the darkness before I even realized what was happening. Without a means to do anything I sought out the one thing I thought could purge my being of it, Kingdom Hearts, but my heartless side got the better of me and turned my once twilight thoughts into dark thoughts. It all snowballed from there until I am as I appear before you now, a ghost of past twilight being hoping to provide the one assistance I was meant to give you. I am neither living, nor am I dead, nor can I prove that I even exist right now since I could just be another form of a memory, but I do know the difference from feeling and not feeling. I feel emotion and so I am real."

"How would you help us if we are supposed to kill your brother and yourself," asked Riku as he walked up to study the ghost of Xehanort and found that his hand did not go through him like he expected him to. "Could it be that you are back to life because the memories of your nobody met with the memories of your heart, just like Sora."

"I have also entertained that possibility and have disproven nothing so far," replied Xehanort as he started to walk to a wheel and then turned it with an exertion of strength. "This door is much like Castle Oblivion because this cave itself use to be a castle that is now brought down into the earth and is the original castle that your Disney Castle and my Castle Oblivion is a memory of. This door leads to all other doors except for the three doors of balance."

"Three doors of balance," asked Sora as he tried to think about it, but he couldn't figure it out.

"The one door you know of is Kingdom Hearts, which contrary to what I believed was the door to light," replied Xehanort between pulls on the wheel. "The other door is Kingdom Mind, which is the door of darkness because all dark thoughts are spawned from our mind and then there is Kingdom Soul, the door of twilight in which both sides emerge into a balance. One of you is meant to hold the key to Kingdom Hearts, the key to Kingdom Soul, and the one we run from holds the key to Kingdom Mind. Do not try to destroy each other though, it will cause chaos for either light or darkness to be destroyed and the fights between you might escalate if twilight is gone from being able to keep you both in check."

"So that means that Sora is the being of light doesn't it and I'm the one in twilight," said Riku as he looked at Sora and then down at the floor in embarrassment for what he did while under the control of darkness.

"Do not assume that your past has anything to do with your alignment of the future," said Cloud as he took a step forward and then turned towards Xehanort. "Sometimes the best light is one that knows what it's like when everything is dark and so it shines brightest because it knows how powerful the darkness is. The only thing I want to know is whether I am the light and he is the darkness."

"Nothing is definite, you are not tied by their wheel or their duty and so you are open to be as free as you want," replied Xehanort, now finished with his work as the door that was once shut opened before them revealing a portal that was a shade of grey. "Your actions guide you to do anything that you want to do so obey your heart and it should lead you to a good place. Now the only way either of you are going to find your answers will be by following my brother to where he is and along the way you may find other things, new friends, new allies, and new enemies. That door is waiting for you to go through it and it would be rude for you not too, especially after it has waited for so long to open for you two."

"Do we go where we know not where or do we stay here and try to find our own safe way," asked Sora, his choice of wording sounding to advanced for him that the others looked at him and for a second, as Sora walked over to the door and turned around, they saw an older, wiser warrior standing before them before the image faded back into the memory that it rose from. "I know this step is probably the boldest one we've ever taken, but I think now we've determined that the stakes are too high for us not to try this."

"Okay then, oh fearless captain, lead us on," replied Riku as he walked up next to his friend and the two walked towards the door ready to face whatever was on the other side.

* * *

Zeven sat there in the secluded area of the bamboo grove as he observed everything that was around him that was happening from the bugs moving around on the water pond to the birds flying over his head with a sense of freedom that he wished he had. Nothing was free for him, all of his time was just in an effort to put of something that was determined by his birth and so he could not say that he was free of everything. He was held captive by his fear, a captivity that made him envious of the bugs and birds that he observed, and even more envious of the clouds, for they could move around without the interference of others. The bamboo was very firm solid object that he found was even more restrained than him because it was eternally tied to the ground and dependent upon the water in the ground to survive. A sigh came out of his mouth as he thought about the own chains that everything had, like the soldiers that were cautiously walking towards him with a spear held out.

"You there, one who dresses in a black cloak, identify yourself," ordered one of the soldiers as he brought out a scroll that was no doubt a warrant for his arrest on the suspicion that he was a member of Organization XIII.

"What if I don't feel like subjecting myself to your impolite questions," asked Zeven as he pulled his hood down to reveal his face and his very menacing eyes that gave them a wide stair that had the intent to kill in it. "If you wish to get in my way then you are my enemy and if you are sent by your emperor than he is my enemy as well, so what do you want to do?"

"For such impudence I will cut you down," declared the soldier as he pulled his sword out, a typical straight sword that was completely even in width for the whole blade, and he made a zigzag thrust that was meant to get past Zeven's defenses but Zeven broke the sword with just a swipe of his keyblade.

"Cut me down will you, well where is your sword," taunted Zeven as he brought his sword up to block both of the thrusts made by the spears of two other soldiers before sending out burst of ice that froze both of the soldiers in place. The other soldiers weren't hopping to get to Zeven anymore; in fact they were hoping to get away from the stranger who was chasing them in his own majestic stride. "Oh come now, surely you are all tied by duty to do as that warrant commands you and come to arrest me, possibly bring my head before your emperor, come on you aren't going to get your job done going that way."

"If it's a fight you want then it's a fight you're going to get," said a voice as two red chisagrems flew right past his head, sending wave of heat bursting into his ear. He turned to see a man dressed in a cloak similar to his own but they had red flames on them that matched his red spikey hair that was spiked back. "I think I can entertain you for the time being if you want to stay."

"Well then, I see that someone brought back the Organization of my little brother," replied Zeven as he brought his keyblade up in a defensive position with his right elbow bent so that his hand was parallel to his face and his left hand was on the top of the handle. "Well then, let me see how powerful this Organization is, even if I have to take on the little nympho that's hiding in the trees. Bamboo is a very terrible source of disguise because you can't hide your entire body in it, especially when there is so much of you, Larxene."

"What did you just say," shouted the "Savage Nymph" as she charged out of the trees to throw a hail of hand knives at Zeven, each one in quick succession, but all were blocked by the fast movements of her opponent.

"I know your little Organization, hell I'm the brother of the one who commanded it," said Zeven with a sadistic laugh that she could only recognize when remembering when she was taken into the darkness. "If you couldn't defeat my brother then how do you even expect to defeat someone of my stature, especially when it was _I_ who was the fighter and _he _who was the scientist? If you think I am just another pawn in the game like you then you have obviously been listening to him too much."

Zeven took a step forward and noticed how the two Organization members took a step back in caution at him so he tried it for another step just to make sure that he had intimidation on his side. When he found he had this he decided to play with them by making a feint to move and them moving back reflexively, something that he enjoyed so much that he did again and again until he was practically skipping at them. The sickening pleasure that he got out of it was something that worried them both and they begin to have second thoughts about fighting him. Regaining his composure, Zeven snapped his neck before pointing the tip of his keyblade into the sky and then he brought it down as a slash to the ground that caused a massive crack in the ground that made the red haired man and the blond lose their footing before he charged the red haired. Even with the loss of balance, his target was able to parry the attack with one of his chisagrems and then he proceeded to use both of them to slash at Zeven. Zeven moved back and forth, side to side, a lot like a dancer, but he was obviously toying with his opponent.

"Tell me something," asked Zeven as he continued to dodge his attacks and then did a flip kick that knocked the red haired back. "What is your name, you're not one of the originals and I didn't catch your name."

"The name is Axel," replied the red haired before he attacked again, which was again blocked by Zeven's keyblade, except this time Zeven held his hand back while another keyblade, one that was pure black and had bat wings on the top of the guard right where the blade began.

"Well then, Axel, you're existence was hopefully a nice one because you won't get another," declared Zeven as he brought the second keyblade up and knocked away the second chisagrem before kicking the ground out from under Axel. He brought his keyblades up as if to make an attacked but instead he brought his new attack to the person who had just jumped into the fight. "Well Sora this seems to be a premature fight, but I guess I could see how strong you've gotten since we last met."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: New Leader

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

* * *

His opponent still had that grin on his face, that sadistic grin that was incredibly freaky, especially when he was hacking away at Sora with sadistic glee and Sora was only just able to keep up. From the moment he had jumped onto the scene to save Axel, Zeven had gone after him like a man possessed with the spirit of a demon. Luckily he had found that he could use two keyblades without the use of one of his special forms that he couldn't use at that moment because he was alone except for other who he hadn't decided if they were friend or foe. Larxene had helped a bit with fighting him before he had given her a bad cut and kick that took her out of the fight, but he was able to hold up his own against his opponent, despite the abandon at which Zeven fought with.

Zeven brought both of his keyblade's down on the two that Sora had brought up to block the attack before he was forced back by another one of Zeven's random elemental attacks that forced Sora to keep his distance. Luckily Sora could see that the elemental attacks he used had a pattern, unlike his fighting style, which would throw off any person who used a sword, even Cloud with its many ups and downs. When Zeven tried to use a fire attack he countered with blizzard that at first seemed weak because of the fire but he aimed it above the attack so that the ice melted in mid air and put out the fireball as well as soaking Zeven. This only made Zeven laugh as he threw out one keyblade and caught it with a chain so that he could spin it around. The idea was that if Sora wasn't hacked by the sword because he was up close then he could be strangled with the chain or at least caught and held in submission. This was a brilliant move used by a rather psychotic individual or he at least seemed like he was insane, but Sora reasoned that since his moves were good at confusing his opponent then he was a genius. Jumping back to a tree, Sora prepared himself to spring from the tree right at the man for a quick slash like Cloud had taught him, but before he could do that he found that the tree was cut in half by the chained keyblade.

"Well you have gotten stronger, but you're still not at that level that I need you to be," said Zeven as he brought the keyblade back to his hand and threw the chain to the ground, revealing that it had been cut. "Right now I could still take you on because you haven't the strength to keep up the fluidity of your movement with my brute strength. I'd also suggest you get faster as I'm more than likely to get faster in my strikes and you were able to keep in this because you were faster than me, but you are still not in the complete understanding of the power you have. Also I'd be careful of who you choose as your allies because though they may be whole, they still have a leader and you don't know if he is in this for the greater good."

"You shouldn't judge that he is our leader," said a voice from atop the large rock that was in the middle of the bamboo grove. Sora looked up to see Saix looking down at the both of them except he too was whole, just like Axel and Larxene. "We have not chosen him as our leader, nor does he have any will to lead our Organization so we are instead caught with the dilemma of who is to be our new leader."

"You think you can fill the shoes of my little brother," asked Zeven with a bit of a smile on his face as he brought his keyblade up.

"The choice we made was neither in the one who helped us find each other nor was it one of us," replied Saix as he called one of his own claymores to his hands. "In the end we chose to stick with the wielder of the keyblade and so that is why we stand against you now, not under the orders of anyone, but ourselves. It is because of that reason that I will fight you to the death gladly since I'm finally deciding with my heart."

"Could you get any more corny than that," asked Zeven with a laugh as he started to mock the blue haired man who was threatening him with a large sword. "Just because you chose something your heart decides doesn't mean it's a good outcome, especially when you don't know what type of heart you got. For all you know this could be the bad decision, I mean you remember what your failed heart decided and look where it got you."

"It doesn't matter because right now I've decided that I will support the Organizations decision to go against you," said Saix and with that he lifted his claymore and swung it down at Zeven, who just sighed and then brought up both his hands to catch the blade before it could touch the skin on his forehead.

"You see there is a greater difference in power between you and me if you think that your attack will have any effect on me," said Zeven before he kicked Saix right in the chest sending him flying into a tree. "Come now if you wish to battle me you had better make sure that you are strong enough to take on my brother or else this will be as simple as putting out a fire in a waterfall."

Zeven brought his blade up with one hand so that the hilt of it was paired with his right shoulder and then he pushed out his blade out at Saix who only barely managed to dodge it. Calling upon his many claymores, Saix was able to set up a line of defense so that it would take Zeven a while to get to him, enough time for Saix to prepare an attack. To his surprise, Zeven kicked one of the clamores intot he other and created a domino effect that brought down Saix's line of defense and before he knew it Zeven was at his throat with his two keyblades. There was a quiet moment in the air as Zeven grinned at his prey and gave him enough time to let him know that he was screwed in every way possible, but before Zeven could take advantage of his position he sensed something coming at him from the side. He was forced to move back to avoid the point of a knife as it flew right before his face and embedded itself in the bamboo. Zeven let his gaze shift to the Savage Nymph that was holding a knife between each finger in preparation to throw them and he had an annoyed look on his face.

"Save the butter knives for fixing dinner babe, I'm interested in a blade," said Zeven before he did the unthinkable, he brought his keyblade up in a flash and cut Saix in half. "Well I suppose I'm done here for now, hope to hear good things from you soon."

A dark mist enveloped Zeven, nothing like the grey that surrounded Sora before, but an oppressive dark blue mist that Sora was not meant to follow, nor had he any intentions of doing that. With a somber and silent walk, Sora went over to where Saix was slowly dying, this time he had blood to bleed instead of fading into nothingness. Not much was known to Sora about Saix, except that he had a heart and he did count as a human being, no matter what he had said or done before. Sora also knew that Saix was not his enemy, he was Sora's ally and that made him a possibility of being a friend, perhaps even a very good friend that Sora would have been glad to know, but that chance was now ripped away from Saix, along with any plans he had for his own future. By his side were Axel and Larxene, both were friends of Saix or at least comrades and there was one golden rule about losing a comrade, you always mourned their passing, even if there was nothing else. They all came; all eight other members of Organization XIII came to see the passing of the second in command, and probably the one who would have run the show had they not chosen Sora.

"I thank you my friends and comrades, for you have all given me something very dear," said Saix before his body went limp and his eyes became cold and emotionless to everything that was around him.

"What gift did we give him, I didn't save him," asked Sora, a bit curious as to the unspoken gift that he had given and he noticed that all of them were doing something that could only be really appreciated when someone use to be irrelevant to the matters of the world. They were shedding tears for him and to someone who was once a Nobody, it was very touching and in reality, it was probably the best gift they ever got.

"Well then, what should we do," asked Axel and everyone turned to one person in the bamboo grove and Sora sighed as he made his decision.

"I'll trust you for now, Xehanort," said Sora as he turned to the one everyone was looking at and Xehanort gave a nod as he started to summon up a grey mist.

"We'll have to trail him," replied Xehanort before he started to walk into the grey mist, his hand motioning for Sora to follow.

"Looks like I'm going to have to ask Kairi to wait just a little bit longer," said Sora as he walked into the twilight of the grey must and felt it spread all over him.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Walking in the Past

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

* * *

Sora pondered about meeting this current alliance with people who had once been his enemy, especially since the leader, Xehanort, had once tried using every method he could to get his way. He was Sora's enemy as a heartless and as a nobody, but now he was the one ally that Sora knew he was going to need if he was going to find Zeven. The trail was a little less normal than tracking a bear, but the thin line that Zeven left in the twilight realm was easily picked out with its black mark in the grey. Around Sora was a cold wind that was a bit comforting, like a breeze on a hot sunny day, and he felt so good in it, though he turned back to see Riku practically freezing himself along with Cloud and Leon. _That's the first time that I've ever seen Riku admit that he was physically cold or that he was at a disadvantage to me._

"Sora, be careful where you're stepping," warned Xehanort as he turned back and looked at Sora, who was about to misstep into the shadow realm and would probably be sucked in by it. "One misstep and you'll have wished I pulled you along by a rope, trust me."

"That's a bit difficult to do," muttered Sora in retort, but he knew that Xehanort was right in the matter, he would have to trust him if he was going to get what he wanted. "Which world did he go to?"

"it would appear that he has made his way to the world of Neverland," replied Xehanort as he looked at the doorway that was before him and with a deep breath, crossed through it to the other side.

"I hope you're a hundred percent sure of trusting him," said Riku as he looked at Sora and Sora only slightly nodded. "I hope you're not planning on making such an important decision on the sly of it all because if you did I'm gonna have to beat your ass with the blunt side of my keyblade."

"Oh I'm more responsible than that," replied Sora, even though he had never really thought on his decision, he just went with it because he felt it was right for him. "Come on, we should go through."

Sora had never seen that much of Neverland, just the bits of it that he could see from the deck of Captain Hook's ship, but he wound up seeing so much of London when he was flying over it. Now he saw the reason why adults, especially since he had to mature a lot earlier than he wanted to and definitely faster than anyone would have desired. The worlds he had seen, the knowledge he had partaken of, it was all so foreign to him when he first began his journey to look for his friends, but now it was all too familiar to him. That was something that wasn't seen in Neverland, that world was always nothing of the adult world, it was a haven for all the things that Sora enjoyed when he was a child, the fantasies that he had. It was damn good to know that something was preserving his hopes and dreams that only existed in memories of his childhood that he often found were very pleasant to him after all the darkness he had been through. Sora was considering staying there when he got older just so he could live in the childhood that ended too quickly for him.

The only member of the "Lost Boys" that he had ever met was the leader of the group, Peter pan, and though it had been some time and Sora had aged since that time, Peter was still so young. _Why is it so wondrous that this place keeps one young and childlike forever_, thought Sora as he set eyes on Peter once more and shook hands with the same person. Peter stood there, still just a child in appearance, but he had silently aged on the inside, becoming a wiser leader of his group, despite the fact that he was still immature in his own mind. There was a lot in Peter that Sora remembered in his old self, including an assuming naïve nature that Sora had seemed to lose in himself, and he saw other things that were a part of him still, especially his knack for playfulness. The two greeted each other like old friends, laughing as they said hello after not seeing each other in a long time and Sora introduced his other friends, who were put under a bit of suspicion because of how old they were, save for Zexion.

"It's been so long since I've seen you," exclaimed Peter before he called out his troops to introduce them to the friend of Peter's that they had never met. All of them were as peculiar as Peter, except they were still children who didn't age inside like Peter had done due to his role as a leader.

"Have you come to help us take out the Ribbajack," asked one of the small boys, a kid who was very round in the stomach and dressed in the clothes that resembled a bear.

"The what," asked Sora as he looked at the kid like he was growing antlers at of his head as he spoke.

"Don't mind them, they're just scared of some make believe creature that doesn't exist," replied Peter, brushing the kid's comment aside, but he was curious about why Sora had come. "So have the heartless been showing up again?"

"The heartless show up everywhere through the cracks of each world," said Xehanort as he stood behind Sora and RIku, a tall ominous figure that was like the shadow of death hanging over them. "The darkness in every heart is unable to be destroyed so the heartless will never cease to exist as well, one can only shut the door and turn on more light to keep them from entering a world, but even that is a difficult task."

"Uh, Sora, who's the adult," asked Peter, a bit on the defensive side because the only adults they had ever dealt with were the pirates that would still try to take over their territory.

"Oh he's helping us find somebody, which is why we came here because we have reason to believe that he may have come here," said Sora as he pointed out each person that was with him. "I don't know if he's with the heartless or not, but he seems to bring chaos and destruction wherever he goes."

"Then it seems like you need someone to help you out," declared Peter as he jumped up on a rock and whistled for his trusty fairy, Tinkerbell. "Hey Tink, can you help us find this guy he's talking about?"

The fairy nodded as she started to search out for anyone who might have come out of nowhere or any other suspicious person, but the search ended prematurely when Tinkerbell came running back scared. She was trembling like a person left in the Arctic at night and her eyes were wide open in surprise and terror. Something had scared her so badly she had turned white and was trying to say something or wanted to say something, but the words couldn't come out of her mouth, they were frozen in her throat with the rest of her voice. The other members of the lost Boys cowered in fear of the unknown terror that they were hiding from. The only one of the boys who wasn't running or hiding was the leader of the group, Peter, who stood firm in the face of the threat.

"It's the-the-the-the Ribbajack," screamed one of the boys causing the others to scream along with him until Peter put his hand up to halt their screaming.

"Would you idiots knock it off already, there is no Ribbajack," scolded Peter as he shouted at the boys who found themselves smacked with a very chilling silence as their leader raised his voice to them. "Now then let us get a grip of ourselves and just ask Tinkerbell what it was that she was afraid of in the first place."

"I don't think we have to think on that for long," said Sora as he pointed a shadowy finger that was floating closer to them with its long phantom like fingers held out towards them and the boys cried in fear. "Looks like we found one thing to take care of this world, just wish it was the thing that we were looking for in the first place."

"Let's get him," shouted Peter as he charged the phantasm with his sword only to find that it could move through the air as quick as light and it simply moved out of the reach of his swipe. "This thing is a quick one, that's for sure, but we'll get him."

"Don't count on it there, oh fearless leader," taunted a voice from above them and Sora looked up to see a smirking Zeven looking at the two while sitting in a tree.

"So you're the one who created this thing," shouted Sora as he prepared himself to leap at Zeven.

"Who me, couldn't be," replied Zeven in a mockingly innocent way that would have made any person think twice about his innocence in the matter.

"It's true Sora, he couldn't have created this thing, which is neither dark nor light nor twilight," interjected xenahort as he stepped forward. "Besides, he was never good at inventing things, only doing things, this has always been here, but I sense that you were the one who let it out of whatever was holding the creature."

"Well I guess you could say that brother," said Zeven as he got up and dusted himself off. "Well it really has been fun, but right now I'm completely swamped and need to get to work on so many things with little to do so I will see you all later, but for now I have a lot of plotting to do."

"Hold it right there," ordered Sora, but it was too late, Zeven had disappeared into the darkness, leaving the Phantom behind in his wake.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Who I am

Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts.

* * *

Axel sighed as he went looking through the pale of the world to try and find one of the artifacts that the strange man who only went by an initial, D, had sent him for. The area surrounding him was very…interesting to say the least as most of the area was designed by someone who obviously had either had a weird teacher or was insane because everything was odd in its formation. The area had no one inhabiting it, but the jagged edges and sudden cliff falls put Axel on his toes as he tried to move around the world. Nothing was in its right place as he made his way closer to what appeared to be a house but he expected that there would be nothing on the other side of the door and as he opened the door he found that there was something on the other side. The large house seemed to be normal on the inside, almost as if it was built for someone to visit it, but he did not trust anything around him as he walked in. It was then that he heard that a noise coming from a room that was up the winding stairs of the house. Cautiously he walked up the stairs to the upper floor that he could see had two doors, one of which was opened and had a light inside that he went to investigate. Even though he could see that there was what appeared to be firelight, there was no warmth coming from the room.

In one of the big chairs in the room he could see that there was a man sitting in one of the chairs facing the fire. Axel slowly walked up to the man seated in the chair, but he was shocked to find that instead of a living human being in the chair there was a frozen corpse, its face twisted in fright. The door to the room shut and Axel turned around to see that there was a white haired man standing in the room dressed in a black leather trench coat with red interior and a black vest over a red dress shirt with black slacks on. His shoes were well polished black and looked very tough. Everything about the man seemed to be oppressive.

"And you would be," asked Axel as he made a gesture to the stranger.

"Xongshen is my name, eating my wings to make me tame," said the strange character as he came forward into the light to reveal that the length of his lips had been extended into his cheek with a knife. His eyes were a deep, dark black.

"You don't seem to be that tame, I guess you haven't had your daily dose of wings," said Axel as he brought out one of his chisagrams and then started to spin them around in his hand. "Now then would you kindly get out of my way or die I have to destroy you? I don't want to since you're a nobody and I know what it's like, but that doesn't mean I won't hesitate to stop you."

"Well I can't balk out on an agreement when I tell someone that I'm going to bring them your head," said the man named Xongshen as he started to swing his sword in his hand and then pointed it at Axel. "You see I've made a deal with someone to become whole again and all I have to do is kill you so it's nothing personal."

"Wait a second, I remember now, I was the one who turned you into a heartless," exclaimed Axel and a smile spread across Xongshen's face.

"So you do remember me, I was beginning to think you wouldn't remember your victims. As you do know it was you who made me what I am and you who ruined this handsome face. In fact I find this all a very cruel joke that you'll be destroyed by the one you made a monster out of."

"You couldn't beat me then, what makes you think you'll be able to beat me now," asked Axel as he started to spin his weapons in his hands.

"A simple word that guarantees victory for me," said Xongshen as he started to form a stinger out of his back that was slightly attached to his spine. "Shifter."

Xongshen immediately attacked the red haired man with his stinger as he brought some of his ice powers out to try and impale him with an ice spike, but Axel used his heat to melt the ice spike. The only problem was that the water of the ice splashed onto Axel, stunning him a bit at the feeling of cold water on his face. He was surprised by how cold the water was since he was able to melt ice in two seconds and boil it in four. The fact that the water was still cold told him that Xongshen's ice powers were high enough to rival Axel's own powers. As he recovered from the cold water, Axel found that his opponent was already coming at him with duel ice swords that he was able to keep sharp and tough even when Axel block with his chisagrams of fire. Xongshen had been difficult to defeat before, but Axel was now being forced against the ropes as his opponent moved at an incredibly fast pace that Axel was having a difficult time facing. His opponent was also very reckless in his attacks and seemed to not care if his limb was cut off as the severed arm would just hop back onto his stump.

"Looks like you learned some new tricks as a nobody, something I didn't think you could do," remarked Axel as he started to increase the heat in the room so that everything that was made of ice would melt, even Xongshen's swords. "It looks like you're without anything to use against me."

"It looks as if you have terrible eye sight," replied Xongshen as he traced the handle of the sword that was strapped to his back and removed it from its harness. The blade was very long and double sided with a thick base and wide edge. "Now then I believe we can continue this fight without holding back!"

* * *

Sora jumped over the Phantom that lashed out at them and even managed to get a scrape on the back of Sora's neck as it moved about. Cloud charged into the fray with his sword held high, but came up with nothing but air as he brought it down. The Phantasm was a quick one as it started to grab for Tinkerbell, but before it could do that, Peter jumped in and cut off one of the Phantasm's fingers, only to have it regenerate that finger. It then smacked Peter away but found that Tinkerbell had already 

flown to another person, a man with jet black hair and a red trench coat with black interior sporting a black vest over a red shirt with black leather pants. His eyes were cold silver.

"Tell me are any of you good with riddles," asked the man as he dropped down from the tree as he ran a hand through his hair. "Tell you what if you can answer this riddle than I'll help you with this little problem that you're having. Okay now listen closely because I hate repeating myself. 'if you say my name then I am not here and therefore I don't exist. What am I?'"

"I don't have time for these riddles," shouted Sora as he block the Phantom's attack and then started to lash back.

"Oh maybe you need a hint, here I'll give you a clue, it's something you rarely are though it has the same beginning letter," replied the man as he started to hang from the tree with a shadowy stinger from his back. "It's so simple I'm sure one of these boys can get it."

"It is simple, the answer is Silence," said Xehanort as he started to walk towards the stranger. "Now then may I ask who you are?"

"I'll tell you only if Sora can guess this one," said the stranger as he swung right back onto the branch and crossed one leg over his leg. "What can you put in a barrel to make it lighter?"

"Air," asked Sora, but he was immediately answered with a buzzer sound from a hand buzzer that was in the man's hand. "Wait a second…someone told me this once…it's….a hole!"

"Correct, Sora," said the stranger as he dropped to the ground and then took a bow before standing up straight. "My name is Shenlong, someone who you might not remember though I am perfectly sure that in time you will remember me. Now about your phantasm."

The man named Shenlong simply stood forward and then seemed to use ice to trap the phantasm in. He then proceeded to shatter the ice and kicked each separate piece into separate directions so that it could never be put together again. With a snap of his fingers, Shenlong opened a portal to darkness right behind him while walking backwards, his face still looking at Sora.

"You're powers don't seem to be anywhere near where you need them to be so I should suggest trying to find your true self," said Shenlong as he walked entered the portal. "If you're questioning as to where you should begin than I suggest going back to your island, back to your special place. I've left the way there for you and look forward to when we meet as something that God never see, king's seldom see, and common people see every day."

"What do you mean by that," asked Sora at the top of his voice, but Shenlong was already gone into the portal. "'Something that God never sees, kings seldom see, and common people see every day,' what does that mean?"


End file.
